Well, it’s finally here. After months of predicting when the Disney Plus password crackdown would begin, we finally know when it’s going to happen: September 2024.
Announced by Disney CEO Bob Iger at the Entertainment Giant’s Q3 2024 Earnings Call (With thanks to The Motley Fool for the transcribed quote below), starting next month you will no longer be able to use your family member or friend’s Disney Plus account for free (at least for anyone reading this at the time of writing).
“We started our password sharing initiative in June,” Iger told stakeholders on the call. “That’s really going to kick off in September.”
Disney initially said it would ban account sharing back in June , but it turns out that many of us weren’t affected as only certain countries were affected by the mid-2024 crackdown (the US wasn’t one of them). Now, however, the rest of Disney Plus’ global fanbase will be prevented from sharing accounts between households. Well, unless the primary account holder adds you as an additional member to their monthly or annual subscription, which forces them (or, more accurately, you) to pay an additional fee that has yet to be disclosed.
Why is Disney taking a tougher stance on account sharing?
There’s one big reason: money. By clamping down on password sharing between households, non-primary account holders will be forced to do one of two things: sign up for their own account, or ask their family member or friend to pay for the Extra Member feature unveiled in February so they can continue watching the best Disney Plus movies and best Disney Plus shows in a different apartment building.
From a business perspective, Disney’s decision to prevent unsolicited password sharing makes sense. It needs to make money to not only satisfy its shareholders but also to produce new movies and TV shows and pay its employees. And with Netflix set to see a huge boost to its user base after the streaming giant implements its own password auditing program in May 2023, Disney wants a piece of the action, especially as it tries to keep its chief rival in check from a subscriber perspective.
Unfortunately, such costs are inevitably passed on to consumers. But like Netflix, Disney has a few solutions it hopes will appease consumers who will be annoyed by the looming password crisis. First, it is rolling out an ad-supported tier in late 2023 for those on a budget. You can read our Disney Plus pricing guide for more details on how much the different plans cost. The entertainment giant also recently partnered with Hulu and Max to create a new streaming bundle that will save you money in the long run, since you won’t have to pay for three separate subscriptions. Disney will argue, then, that it’s treating customers right by offering these cheaper alternatives.
A stream of frustrating decisions and price increases
Still, the impending password crackdown doesn’t sit well with me. Granted, I’m in the privileged position of being able to request free press screeners for Disney Plus-branded content, and receive invites to attend press screenings for the company’s lineup of exclusive new films, such as those produced by Marvel, Pixar and 20th Century Studios. So as a UK resident, this account-sharing crackdown, combined with yesterday’s (August 6) news that Disney Plus, Hulu and ESPN are all getting price hikes in the US, probably won’t hit me as hard as it does others.
That doesn’t mean I don’t like it, though. When Disney Plus monthly and annual fees go up again in the US in mid-October, the price will have doubled in just four years. Frankly, that’s a slap in the face for hardworking people who just want to come home after a long day at work and stream the next great TV show or movie – with their family, friends, spouse, or kids – on a platform that doesn’t have to pay top dollar for it. You’ll also soon no longer be able to share your account with the same people in another household without spending more money, which makes it even more frustrating.
As Iger himself noted as part of Disney’s Extended Statement for the Third Quarter of 2024a movie like Deadpool and Wolverine can make Disney nearly $900 million in less than two weeks, so it’s certainly not short on cash. And yet it has the nerve to tell the people who spend their hard-earned money on its movies and TV shows that it will be banning them from sharing their accounts for the foreseeable future. Oh, and you’ll soon have to pay even more for the privilege of streaming its supposedly unparalleled content. Give me a break.